Children of the Blood
by RobinFoster
Summary: This is a continuation of my previous story "Fighting for a Future Imperfect." This story begins Post-Allie defeat.
1. Chapter 1 - Beasts

This is a continuation of my previous story "Fighting for a Future Imperfect."

This story begins Post-Allie defeat.

Chapter 1 - Beasts

"Jomp em ooooooop!" The battle cry sounded the attack and a dozen painted warriors burst from the surrounding forest, rushing into the clearing.

The four massive beasts lounging in the clearing outside of their cave dens were suddenly on their feet, teeth bared and claws exposed. They stood twice the size of the tallest warrior, thick dark fur matted and reeking, razor sharp talons extending from the end of paws the size of a warriors torso.

The Commander watched the soldiers rush forward. Waiting for the right moment. Then with a quick glance to the trees yelled, "Nau!"

Arrows whistled past, raining down on the beasts. Their roars shook the ground as they swiped at the arrows as if they were stinging insects.

The warriors on the ground reached the beasts just as their distraction was at it's pinnacle. They attacked with ferocity, armed with swords and knives. Three of the four beasts were well in hand, already loosing strength as their blood drenched the ground from the unrelenting attack. But the fourth swiped hard with a guttural howl, sweeping three warriors off their feet and flinging them into the trees as if they were made of leaves.

A young warrior, still in training at the Commanders side, pulled his sword intent on avenging his comrades and facing the monstrous beast. But the Commander stopped him with a firm hand on his shoulder. The young warrior glanced up, meeting the fierce burning green eyes that stood bright against the dark war paint on the Commanders face.

"No," the Commander said. "Dison laik ain."

"Shah Heda," he said and watched as she pulled both of her swords and raced into the fray with a shattering cry.

Once all four beasts lay defeated, the Commander took stock of the damage. Four of her eighteen warriors were wounded, one of which most likely would not live to make the return trip to Polis. Not at the pace they must set. She grimaced at the thought of the loss and turned away, yanking her sword free from the skull of the fallen beast in front of her.

"Os fragon, Heda," a deep voice said behind her.

She took a moment to wipe the gore from her blade before sheathing it and turning to face the warrior who had spoken. "A good kill makes no matter when we loose our own, Lincoln" she responded, her eyes flashing.

He nodded and followed her gaze to the now still body of the most severely wounded warrior. The Commander pushed the loss away and refocused her attention on the man in front of her. "How many?"

Lincoln's gaze shifted to the massive, dark cave openings in the hillside beyond the clearing. "Four teams of three. The rest should keep watch."

"Are they ready?"

Lincoln glanced at the two Skaikru huddled around handheld machines, muttering to each other quietly. One glanced up, catching Lincoln's eye and giving a quick nod. Monty. Lincoln glanced at his companion, a woman named Aubry, who was tucking the equipment away. Aubry was former farm station. She gave him a quick nervous smile.

He brought his gaze back to the Commander. "They are."

"Let's go," she said, striding past him.

He caught her arm, stopping her. Her eyes flashed in indignation and he released her, raising his hands in surrender. "Lexa, you're bleeding," he said gently.

She glanced down and for the first time noticed the deep gash in her upper arm, dark blood covering her sleeve and steadily dripping onto the forest floor.

"It's fine," she ground out, obviously frustrated at the delay.

"Just hold still, it'll only take a minute," Octavia said as she approached and dropped the pack of medical supplies.

"I said it's fine! We don't have time to waste," Lexa practically growled.

Octavia pulled a salve and fresh bandages from the pack and squared her shoulders, meeting the Commanders gaze with a determined one of her own. "If it gets infected you won't be going anywhere. And frankly I'm a little more scared of Clarke than you if she finds out I let that happen."

Lexa's anger cracked at the mention of Clarke. "You argue unfairly," she said.

"Shah Heda," Octavia said, allowing a half smile to appear fleetingly.

Lexa thrust her arm forward. "Make it quick."

Dark had fallen but it made no matter. The sun was of no consequence where they were headed. Armed with torches the four teams spent hours upon hours delving deeper into the cave system, carefully marking their paths.

Despite the torches, their field of view was limited and made progress excruciatingly slow. Monty, head bent over the small screen on the device in his hand, walked into Lincoln's back, not realizing the larger man had stopped.

"What is it?" Monty asked, peaking around him. The Commander was a few steps ahead. She took Lincoln's torch and tossed it in front of her. It dropped far past where the floor of the tunnel should have been, revealing a deep cavern below. After a moment, the light extinguished with a small splash.

The three watched as a few other small lights appeared, lower in the cavern.

Octavia, Aubry and another Trikru warrior.

With torches lit around the cavern, their environment began to take shape. It was a massive space. A natural formation carved from millennia of water erosion. Several tunnels led to it. At the bottom, clear cold water flowed through an ancient river.

The four teams had gathered at the cavern floor and were huddled around a small fire. Aubry entered the circle of firelight and sat down next to Monty, a small test kit in her hands.

"Well?" Octavia prompted.

Aubry looked up, a grin slowly spreading across her face. "The water's clear on contaminants. The rock and sediment works as a natural filter. The air is clean too. Radiation levels are the lowest we've seen in, well, ever since being on the ground."

"It's big enough," Monty added, sharing his small screen as best he could with the group. It glowed green, showing outlines of the tunnel system and the cavern itself, having mapped the space as they explored.

"What about food?" Lincoln asked.

As Aubry began to explain their options, Lexa tuned out the voices and let her eyes wander the dark, shadowed spaces of the giant cavern. Was this their future? Living underground like rats? She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose feeling her frustration building.

It had been four months. Four months since they defeated the AI. Since they learned of the fate worse than death awaiting them all if they remained in their villages. Radiation sickness. Contaminated water. Black rain. The electrical storms. It was all happening just as the AI had warned Clarke and they were running out of time to find a suitable place to hide. No, to survive, she reminded herself.

She pushed to her feet and walked to the edge of the stream, away from the others. She closed her eyes and slowed her breathing, feeling the familiar tug of the Flame in her mind. Slowly images began to form. Soft, moving shapes almost like ghosts passing through her vision. Then a shape in the center became more defined. A figure, a woman, sitting crosslegged in a sea of white. Lexa knew her even before she looked up. Would have known her anywhere. Clarke.

She felt herself drift closer in her mind, Clarke's features becoming clearer. Her blue eyes steady on Lexa. Then she slowly lifted her arm and looked down at her wrist. At her watch. Her Father's watch Clarke had told her.

Just as quickly the vision was gone. Lexa opened her eyes to the dark, cavernous space surrounding her.

Time. They were running out of time. They would do what they must. She would find a way to keep her people alive if it was the last thing she did.


	2. Chapter 2 - Home No More

Chapter 2 - Home No More

The weary travelers arrived at the outskirts of Polis a few hours after dawn had broken, although the sky remained dark with ominous clouds hanging low and cracks of blue lightening streaking across the sky.

The electrical storms had been told of in the earliest Grounder history but it had been decades since they had been seen. That is until recently. The return of the mythical storms had forced Lexa and Clarke to tell their people of the impending crisis bearing down on all of them sooner than they had hoped.

Some reacted in panic and fled. Others, many still broken from the trying events surrounding ALLIE's control, resorted to violence. Violence born of fear and desperation. But most looked to their leaders for answers. Answers they did not have.

Keeping the fragile peace that was born from ALLIE's defeat had been a challenge like no other. And the weight of responsibility for saving their people, saving humanity, had pressed heavily on both Lexa and Clarke.

They worked tirelessly to find solutions to problems they hadn't even had time to understand. But in the end, escape seemed the only viable option and a tenuous one at best. It had been three weeks since Clarke left for Arkadia and the Solar Sea in search of more answers while Lexa and her team went in search of a refuge. A seemingly impossible quest given the numbers. But none the less, they hadn't returned empty handed.

Lexa pulled her horse up short at the head of the group. Polis was a shadow of the city it had been a mere six months prior. The streets were filled with activity, but instead of street vendors and people going about their daily lives, they were filled with the frantic hustle of a people on the edge of panic.

Lexa's frown deepened, not quite sure what she was looking at. Not understanding how it was possible. The Polis tower, her home, the symbol of Grounder civilization for generations, was gone. In it's place a pile of rubble and chaos.

Octavia rode up beside her, shaking her head. "What the hell could have done this?"

"Heda!" came a shout from nearby and Lexa dismounted to meet Indra as she approached.

"What happened?" Lexa asked without preamble, unable to tear her eyes from the ruins of her city.

"A storm. Three days ago," Indra said. "The largest we've seen."

Lexa shook her head, gaze fixed on the rubble. "I don't understand. Polis has weathered storms for hundreds of years."

"Not these storms," Monty said. When all eyes turned to him he continued. "Super storms. They'll only get stronger."

"That's not all," Indra said. "Azgeda. They have a sickness. Those that were able have traveled here."

"It's the radiation," Aubry said.

"Indra, spread the word to the clan leaders. Tell them to have their people collect everything they can and be prepared leave in two days time," Lexa said. She shook her head, hardly believing her own words as they left her mouth. "Polis is no longer safe."

"Shah Heda," Indra said.

Lexa met Indra's eyes and they clasped forearms in a warrior's embrace. Then she turned and walked back to her horse, gathering the reigns and pulling herself up into the saddle.

"Where will you be Heda?" Indra asked.

"I ride to Arkadia. Final plans must be made." She met Indra's gaze. "Two days, no more. Then begin moving everyone south. We will meet in the camp west of Arkadia."

Indra gave a quick nod. "It will be done Heda."

With that Lexa turned her horse south and rode towards Arkadia.

Black rain had slowed their progress, but eventually the metallic structure of Arkadia came into view through the fog. The gates swung open for them and they ducked in quickly to escape the stinging rain.

Abby met them in the makeshift stable, followed by a small string of healers to address the burns from the black rain and any other injuries. After medical attention, Monty and Aubry headed off to download their data with Raven. Lincoln and Octavia took their leave.

Lexa could feel Abby's eyes on her as she shrugged out of the tattered remains of her coat eroded away by weeks of travel through bursts of the burning black rain. She tossed it across the saddle she had removed from her horse and finally looked up to meet Abby's gaze.

"Any burns?" Abby asked.

Lexa shook her head and began to remove her weapons.

"Still not affecting you?"

"Not as much as everyone else, no," Lexa answered and managed to smother a wince as pain from the wound in her arm made itself known.

Abby's sharpe eyes missed nothing. "What happened to your arm?"

Lexa had learned that to try and resist Abby Griffin was about as useless as arguing with her daughter, so she didn't protest as Abby unwrapped the bandage and began cleaning and re-dressing the wound.

"What did this?" she asked as she examined the gash.

"Bear," she stated.

Abby paused and glanced at her, then shook her head. "Lets get you cleaned up and then you can rest."

"Is she here?" Lexa asked.

"If she was, I can guarantee she would be giving you a much harder time about this arm."

Their eyes met and they shared a brief smile. "They aren't back from the Solar Sea yet," Abby answered. When Lexa frowned, she placed a hand on hers. "But they should be back within a day or so."

Lexa stepped into the small room that was Clarke's home when she was in Arkadia and look a moment to take it in. This had been where Clarke had lived before. Before Mt Weather. Before Polis. Before…them.

The room was very small with a cot on one wall and a metal table on the opposite wall. A few clothes were tossed haphazardly on the cot, as if Clarke had left in a hurry.

But Lexa's gaze was quickly drawn to the table, or rather the stacks of paper on them. She took a step closer and gathered them in her hands, slowly moving through them. They were drawings. Of the Ark. Of her friends. Of her mother and father.

She paused when she came across the unexpected but recognizable face of a Grounder warrior. Anya. Clarke's stokes had captured her mentors fierceness and cunning. She had drawn this long before Lexa had known her and even then Clarke had seen the humanity in the face of a Grounder despite their many battles against each other.

Lexa wondered what advice Anya might give her now. If she would have been proud of what she had accomplished. Of what she and Clarke had accomplished together.

"Lexa?" a voice sounded behind her.

She turned and a smile rose to her lips without thought. "Clarke," she said quietly.

In the next moment the blonde was in her arms. When they kissed, Lexa could still feel the chill on Clarke's lips from her long journey. She covered them with her own and pulled their bodies closer together sharing her warmth.

After a moment, Clarke pulled back far enough to meet her eyes and smiled. "God I missed you."

Lexa rested her forehead against Clarke's and allowed her eyes to slip closed. Her world righted itself as she drew from the closeness she had been missing. She took a deep breathe and then looked at Clarke. Really looked at her. Her eyes held dark circles and worry lines etched creases across her face. She looked as bone tired as Lexa felt.

"We have a lot to discuss," Lexa said.

Clarke nodded, trying to force a smile to chase away the exhaustion.

"But first, I intend for us to get reacquainted," Lexa added.

Clarke's small grew wry and her eyes sparked, "It that so, Commander?"

"Yes Ambassador, it is so," Lexa said as she slowly moved them towards the cot.

"You know I've never been good at talking orders," Clarke said in a warning voice. Lexa pulled her close and traced her tongue along Clarke's ear, and Clarke's legs practically buckled. "But maybe in this case I'll make an exception."


	3. Chapter 3 - Time

Chapter 3

Three Months Earlier - Polis

Clarke frowned, her forehead furrowing deeply as she and Lexa watched the information being presented to them.

On the screen were small triangles representing each clan village location, Polis, Arkadia, and the mansion that had once held ALLIE near what they'd been calling the Solar Sea.

Four circles began small and grew larger, each overtaking the inhabited regions and eventually overlapping. The time-lapse clocked the entire change in five months time.

She glanced up at Kane. "All of them?"

Kane nodded, closing the tablet he'd been showing them. "All of the habitable regions we know of are going to be contaminated with lethal levels of radiation. Un-livable, even to Skaikru," he said.

Clarke closed the door to their room, resting her head on the frosted glass a moment. The information was overwhelming. How do you explain the end of the world to thousands and still prevent chaos? How would they maintain the peace in the face of the tidal wave of fear it would cause? Fear of the unknown. Fear of the future. How could she ask them to trust her when she had her own fears plaguing her?

"Lexa," she said before turning. "Promise me something."

Lexa had gone to the balcony, looking out blindly into the sun as it hung low on the horizon. She looked back at Clarke, the strain of the news visible on her face. Clarke moved across the room, took her hand and pulled her to sit on the bed.

"Promise me that whatever happens, we'll stay together through this."

Lexa's brow furrowed, not understanding.

Clarke squeezed her hands. "Promise me that we'll do what's best for our people. Together. But in the end, that we won't… that we won't sacrifice each other for them."

There gazes locked, Lexa studying her. She didn't know if she was asking to be reassured or to be convinced by the promise. But after a moment, Lexa nodded. "I promise to always put you first. Even before our people."

It was only later they would realize that Lexa's answer was just as complicated as the question itself.

Clarke pulled her thoughts from the memories and allowed her hands to wander aimlessly over the warm skin under her fingers. She was having a hard time accepting the idea that Polis was gone. It had seemed so indestructible. So virile. She realized that she had come to think of it as home. As the center, not only of Grounder civilization, but of her life with Lexa.

Her gaze travelled back to the skin under her fingers as she brushed them over the tattoos on Lexa's back. Lexa slept deeply, her weariness so overwhelming that they hadn't spent much time talking before sleep claimed her.

Clarke allowed the hint of a smile to cross her lips, knowing Lexa only slept like this, allowed herself this vulnerability, when they were together. The confidence in her safety with Clarke stirred the now familiar warmth of love that spread through her limbs.

Her hands drifted up to the back of Lexa's neck, brushing her dark hair to the side revealing the symbol of the Commander. Clarke's gaze travelled over it and the scar beneath, now all too familiar with what lay just under the skin. She now had an identical tattoo over an identical scar on the back of her own neck.

The symbol, so sacred to the Grounder culture, had been everywhere in the building that had once housed ALLIE. Having spent so much time steeped in the Grounder world, it was jarring to realize the sacred symbol was nothing more than a corporate logo. She tried to separate that idea from symbol from the one branding her neck.

She had agreed to the tattoo because of Lexa. And her respect for Lexa's world. Being the only two living people to have experienced the Flame seemed something remarkable to celebrate, to share. That experience was far more intimate than something as cold as a corporate logo. It had bound them together, body and soul.

The weeks of separation, the desperate search for answers, the frustration at not finding a solution that could keep them all, Grounders and Skaikru alike, alive and together… the weight of it all suddenly felt overwhelming. She had kept her emotions a bay for months, but here, now in the quiet with what there was tp loose so clearly laid before her, it suddenly hit Clarke hard. Her home. Lexa's home, was gone. There was no miraculous way to go back to the way things had been now. They were truly sliding perilously into the unknown.

She didn't realize the tears had begun until one dropped from her cheeks on to Lexa's skin. Lexa stirred, turning to face Clarke, her eyes holding concern. Clarke merely shook her head and buried herself in Lexa's arms. Lexa didn't offer words of reassurance. She didn't have them to give. Instead she held Clarke close. Felt their shared hearts beating, felt the rise and fall of their chests against each other as they breathed. They were alive. Still alive.

She found Clarke's lips with her own and kissed her deeply. Poured all of her love, her hope into it. Clarke moaned into the kiss and wrapped her body more tightly around Lexa's, pulling her in as if they could merge into one.

CLANG CLANG!

They ignored the knock on the closed metal door at first. But a second rap sounded louder, followed by the muffled voice of Bellamy telling them the meeting was about to begin, forced them apart. They stared at each other, breathing heavily, neither wanting to leave each other's embrace.

"Clarke? You in there?" Bellamy's voice again.

Lexa broke the spell with a gentle quirk of her lips. "They might send a search party."

Clarke smiled and rested her forehead against Lexa's, closing her eyes briefly. "Never enough time," she sighed. Then she pushed herself up and answered, "Yes Bellamy, we'll be right there."

As she listened to his footsteps retreat down the hall, Lexa cast her gaze back to Clarke. "Not enough time. So your spirit keeps warning me."

Clarke tilted her head in question, "In the Flame?"

Lexa nodded, gently taking Clarks's wrist and holding it up. "You keep looking at your father's watch with that expectant look you get."

Clarke quirked an eyebrow, "What look?"

Lexa suppressed a grin and pointed, "That one."

Clarke chuckled a moment before turning serious again. Her gaze moved to the bandage on Lexa's arm. "Are you ok?"

Lexa nodded, pushing herself up and beginning to pull on her clothes. "Fine. The bear got it much worse."

Clarke began to hastily pull on her clothes as well. "That I don't doubt."

"And you think it's large enough?" Kane asked. They were standing in a makeshift war room. A massive table in the centre glowed with the schematic Monty had captured of the cave interior.

Clarke had her hands on the table, leaning over it and studying it with a furrowed brow. Lexa stood nearby. She avoided the image, preferring to study the faces around her.

Kane studied the image, stroking his chin, Abby next to him on one side with her arms crossed, Bellamy on the other. Lincoln and Octavia leaned against the wall in the background, listening. Monty and Aubry, who'd laid out their findings stood by Raven who's eyes continually scanned over the data they had gathered running down the side of the image.

"Two cubic meters per person. Enough water flow to provide hydration and avoid stagnation. With some agricultural tools, food stores should be sufficient for a sustainable diet. The space should be able support a significant part of the Grounder population. Some of the sick may have to be culled from the group to make room for those who are healthy and can produce," Aubry answered, a little too matter of factly. All eyes glanced up at her, then shifted to the Commander, awaiting her reaction.

But it was Clarke who answered, "They're not animals, for Christ's sake," she snapped, glaring across the table at the farm station girl.

"It's… it's… I'm sorry," Aubry stammered.

Clarke pushed off the table and gestured at the image. "What kind of life is that? Living underground for who know how long? No, there has to be another option. What about…"

"She's right Clarke," Lexa cut in, her voice deceptively calm. Clarke looked at her, not believing the defeated tone lacing Lexa's voice. They stared at each other a moment before Lexa tore her eyes away and swept the room, meeting each face briefly.

"Polis is gone. Azgeda is sick. In a day's time, those that are able will be arriving at the camp to the west." She paused, glancing at the faces around the room again. "Time is short. Unless someone has another solution," her eyes settled on Clarke who was frowning at her, arms crossed tight across her chest, "this is the best option we have."

Kane's gaze shifted between the two women, then turned to Bellamy. "What did you find at the Solar Sea?"

Bellamy shook his head. "Not much new. There is enough space for about 150 people, maybe 200. Water filtration, hydroponic greenhouse, a lab."

"Most importantly, ALLIE's database," Raven added. Abby narrowed her eyes, but Raven lifted her hands to stave off several protests. "She can't come back."

"How can you be sure?" Abby asked.

"Look, her code is gone. She doesn't exist. But all of the data she had access too is still there," she explained. "I just haven't been able to access it. But I will."

"And what do you hope to find?" this from Lincoln. He pushed off the wall and stepped next to Lexa. "How will that help us?"

"It's not ALLIE's data we're interested in. It's Becca's research," Raven explained. "Somehow, she managed to survive the intense radiation at it's peak."

"I thought it was the Flame," Abby said, not following.

"Yes, the Flame helped. But how did she accept it? She wasn't a Nightblood. And what about the first Grounders? They should have all died from the radiation. How did they survive? Somehow she found a way to help others survive too. If we can find out how, maybe we can replicate what she did," Clarke said.

"You want our history?" Lexa asked.

Clarke met her eyes, her expression softening. "Yes but… the science. Not the mythology."

At that moment, Miller came in, obviously out of breathe. "Sorry to interrupt," he said. "But we have visitors."

Octavia recognized the figure in front of the group of about 50 Grounders standing just inside of the gates almost immediately. "Luna!" she said in alarm, and rushed towards her, the rest close behind her.

Luna appeared exhausted and was stooped over supporting another one of her people that was practically unconscious. Most of the others had collapsed almost immediately. Abby called for medical reinforcements as she dropped down next to those that seemed most severely injured.

"Were you attacked?" Lexa asked.

Luna straightened as Clarke and Jackson relieved her of the woman she was supporting, easing her to the ground. She met Lexa's eyes and shook her head. "No. Not in the way you mean."

Clarke looked up from examining her patient. "It's radiation sickness," she said.

"It began two weeks ago. Slowly at first. Our healers did what they could, but soon they too were overcome," Luna explained.

"And you?" Lexa asked, already suspecting the answer.

Luna met her eyes and shook her head. She turned her gaze to Clarke. "This is what you warned us about?"

Clarke nodded, "Yes. And if it's reached you already, we have less time than we thought."


	4. Chapter 4 - Child of the Blood

Chapter 4

Lexa watched, a deep frown marring her features, as members of Flokru quickly filled and overwhelmed the old airlock which had been made into a makeshift triage area. Abby and Clarke moved as quickly as they could through the group as moans of pain and agony filled the air.

Luna helped the last of her people in to lie on the floor and await any kind of relief. The Flokru leader looked pale and exhausted. Lexa helped her back to her feet and pressed a cup of warm liquid into her hands.

Luna automatically pushed it away, "I must help them…"

But Lexa stopped her with a firm but calming hand on her arm. "You've done all you can," she said quietly. "Let Clarke and her people help them now."

Luna slumped back against the wall, her eyes still roaming helplessly over her people littering the ground.

"Drink," Lexa prompted.

Luna put the cup to her lips without looking and after a hesitant sip, brought the cup back to her lips and drank deeply. "I don't think I realized just how cold I was until now." She glanced sideways at Lexa, studying her troubled profile. "Thank you, Lexa," she said quietly.

The Commander turned to meet her gaze. They studied each other, once friends, then adversaries, now in a wary truce. Finally Lexa gave a barely imperceptible nod of acceptance.

Luna looked back over the sea of agony before them. She shook her head. "I should have listened to you when you warned us."

"Yes, you should have." After a moment Lexa released a sigh. "But even so," she turned and met Luna's dark eyes once more, "I doubt you would have avoided suffering. None of us have."

"I was surprised to see you here," Luna said. "Shouldn't the Commander be in Polis commanding?"

Luna was attempting to lighten the mood, but at Lexa's silence her concern grew. Finally Lexa looked at her. "Polis is gone."

Luna blinked and shook her head, certain she must be hearing things. "Gone? I don't…"

Lexa pushed to her feet. "Come, we'll speak outside." She gave the room one more glance, finding Clarke's blonde head bent over a young girl, her head cocked, listening intently for a heartbeat. She watched as Clarke's eyes slid closed only a moment before giving a quick shake of her head and moving to the next patient. Then she slipped from the room, Luna behind her.

She spoke again as they crossed the Arkadia courtyard. "You've seen the storms?"

"The ones with blue lightening? Yes, of course," Luna said.

"One of those, larger and stronger than we've ever seen, swept through Polis and destroyed it, not even a week ago," Lexa explained. "Everyone that is left is on their way to the encampment to the west."

Luna grabbed her arm and stopped her. "And then what? Are the Ski people immune?"

Lexa shook her head. "No. As far as we know, it appears only two people are immune."

Luna's eyes widened in understanding.

"I'm going to need your help," Lexa said as she began walking again.

"Three," Luna said, still standing in place.

Lexa stopped and turned back to her, not understanding.

Luna met her gaze, "There are three of us."

"How old is she?" Clarke asked.

She and Lexa were leaning against the wall in the stables where Luna sat some distance away with the terribly small group of her people still well enough not to need immediate medical attention.

Lexa's eyes were on a girl with a fair complexion and jet black hair sitting with the group. She had no apparent injuries, unlike the rest of her clan.

"Luna says she is in her eighth year," Lexa said quietly.

"And she didn't bother to tell us about her before now?" Clarke said, fatigue straining her patience.

"No," Lexa said. "But what difference would it have made?"

"It's the principle," Clarke argued.

"Given all else we have to deal with now, I am choosing not to dwell on it," Lexa said.

"I'll need new blood samples from all three of you," Clarke said.

"You've run your tests on my blood already. What can their blood give you?"

Clarke shook her head, uncertain. "I don't know. Maybe… maybe there there's some difference, something that can give us clue about how it protects you."

Darkness had fallen and the stable was lit only by the fire in the center of the Flokru group and a few glow sticks hanging near the footpath. Lexa found Clarke's profile against the warm glow of the distant fire light. She could sense her weariness mixed with an anxiety that kept her shifting on her feet.

She reached out and brushed her cheek, drawing Clarke's attention. It only took a moment for Clarke to close the gap between them and lean her body heavily into Lexa's. Lexa wrapped an arm around her and drew in a deep breathe, finding strength in their closeness.

Clarke sighed, some of her restlessness dissolving. "Well, if nothing else this proves it's your blood and not the Flame that is protecting you."

"For all of the good that does us," Lexa muttered.

Clarke glanced up at her, frowning at Lexa's unusual pessimism. "Nothing from the other Commanders? From Becca?"

Lexa shook her head. "Just you and your watch," she answered. She glanced down, meeting Clarke's eyes in the dimness, seeing a glimmer of amusement in her blue eyes. She leaned down and kissed her softly, letting the warmth of the brief contact roll through her.

"We'll think of something," Clarke whispered, still so close that Lexa could feel her words through the breathe on her face. The Commander's green eyes searched Clarke's, trying to believe her conviction.

BRAAAAAAW

They both glanced up at the open door and the murmur by the fire instantly ceased at the sound of the signal horn in the distance.

BRAAAAAAW

"What is it?" Clarke asked, glancing back at Lexa.

"The clans." She met Clarke's eyes. "They have arrived at the western encampment."


	5. Chapter 5 - This or Death

Chapter 5

The group of six on horseback rode into the Grounder camp under cover of darkness. The lack of sun hid whatever ominous clouds had gathered above them, but the streaks of blue lightening gave them glimpses of the threatening storm brewing.

The encampment consisted of wagons piled high and strapped down carrying all that could be salvaged from Polis and the few possessions the Grounders could pack quickly for their families and uncertain future. Despite the flickering torches lighting the paths between tents, scarce few figures could be seen milling about. Most, no doubt, had taken shelter inside in anticipation of the impending storm.

Indra greeted them at the main tent entrance, issuing quick orders for their horses to be watered and fed.

"Heda," Indra said as she clasped her Commanders wrist in reunion, her eyes flashing from under the hood low over her face. She glanced at the others, Octavia, Lincoln and Clarke as well as two medics weighed down with supplies.

Octavia nodded at her in greeting and asked her quickly in Trigedasleng where to find the medical tent.

Indra pointed at a tent down the hill, second in size only to the main Commander's tent. All eyes shifted to the tent, noting the size and what it meant.

"How many?" Clarke asked, her voice quiet.

"We've found it useless to continue to count," Indra said in a clipped tone. When Clarke looked back and held her gaze, Indra dipped her head in silent apology. "Nyko has it well in hand but your supplies will be greatly appreciated."

Lincoln nodded, "We'll take care of it," he said. With that he and Octavia led the two medics towards the tent.

A brilliant flash of blue followed only a second later by a shaking clap of thunder drove the remaining three inside the main tent.

A guard Clarke didn't recognize took their coats and coverings as Indra led them into the room well lit with candles to the large wooden table covered in animal skins and maps she knew well as the Commander's war table. Standing at the table, leaning arms extended over it, was the familiar fur-clad figure of Roan, King of Azgeda.

Clarke smiled as he looked up when they approached. "Roan," Clarke said, clasping his wrist in greeting. "It's good to see you. I'm glad you and your people made it in time."

While he clasped her wrist in return, he didn't smile. Instead his frown deepened and his narrow eyes moved from her and locked on to Lexa as she came to stand across the table and studied the map.

"Yes, we made it to Polis just in time to see it fall. And found it's Commander absent," he said in a gruff tone.

Lexa's eyes lifted to him, slow and dangerous.

"Your people will be anxious to hear from the great Commander how she intends to save them when she stays sheltered with the Ski people," he continued, his anger obvious.

Lexa didn't avert her gaze, nor did she address his words. Clarke frowned and opened her mouth to object, but Lexa spoke first as she shifted her gaze back to the map and addressed Indra. "The tents seem far too few. What happened?"

"Some did not heed the warning. Others chose to take their chances on their own," Indra said. "And the rest…"

"The rest are dead, or too close to it to travel," Roan growled. He leaned forward again, edging his face into Lexa's field of view across the table. "So I ask you again, Commander, what is your plan?"

Lexa continued to ignore his goading and moved a wooden marker to an undeveloped edge of the map far to the southwest. "We will move here," she said, indicating the area. "There are deep caverns. They will provide the shelter we need."

"Caves?" Indra asked, clearly disliking the idea.

"And then what?" Roan demanded. "We hide like frightened animals?"

Lexa slammed her fist on the table. "Then we live!" she shouted.

Roan leaned back and crossed his arms, silenced.

Clarke swallowed, unsettled to see Lexa loose control.

"This is not an enemy that can be beaten with armies and swords Roan. These caverns have clean water and air, shelter from the raging storms and will protect our people from sickness," she continued, forcing her voice to be calm. "Our time is running out. This," she pointed to the marker, "is our best hope for our people. This is how we survive."

Roan turned away and paced, his arms still folded.

Lexa pushed up from the table. "It is this or death."

Clarke watched as Lexa re-established command of her emotions, wondering how much it cost her each time she sacrificed that part of herself to be a leader. She knew the feeling well and knew that it had damaged her in ways she may never fully know.

"When do we leave, Heda?" Indra asked, lifting her chin, awaiting orders.

"Call together the clan leaders," Lexa said. Then her gaze moved from Indra to Clarke. She paused as if weighing her next words. Clarke held her gaze, feeling dread suddenly building in her gut. There was something hidden in Lexa's gaze. It had been a long time since Lexa had hidden anything from her. She frowned.

Lexa finally pulled her gaze from Clarke's and answered, "We leave within a weeks time." A clap of thunder shook the ground, as if to punctuate her words.


	6. Chapter 6 - Never Enough

Chapter 6

Clarke's fingers absently pulled at the loose strings on the frayed edge of her sweater. The tent was quiet, the meetings long concluded. She sat waiting on the bed of furs, her mind echoing with Lexa's words.

One week.

She had known time was growing short. That they would have to act, make decisions soon, but they hadn't put the time into words yet. At least, not until now.

One week.

It wasn't enough, she thought. And it had nothing to do with time for preparations and everything to do with Lexa. She'd made Lexa promise months ago that they wouldn't separate, that they would weather this together, no matter the consequences. But they hadn't spoke of it since.

She had listened quietly to Lexa explain the situation, the plan, to the clan leaders. In comparison, Roan's reaction had been mild. But unlike with Roan, Lexa had maintained her composure, trying instead to exude confidence and exact command. Clarke couldn't help but admire Lexa's uncanny ability to lead, to convince, to give her people what they needed no matter the cost to herself.

And it had become starkly and painfully clear how much the Grounders still needed their Commander. Her people were scared. They needed their leader, their Heda.

The dread in the pit of Clarke's stomach burned all the brighter.

What if they did part in a week? How long would they be apart? The distance between the Solar Sea and the Caverns was immense. Weeks long to travel at least. Impossible for Clarke. Unwise for Lexa.

She had considered just going to the Caverns with the Grounders, with Lexa. She could be useful. And they would be together. But to what end? What she needed to do, what she must do, is find a way to change their reality. To find a way for them all to survive in the volatile place the Earth had become. Becca had done it. If only she could discover how!

Of course without her, Raven and her mother would continue their research, continue to look for that answer, but in the end, she knew she couldn't leave it to anyone else. It needed to be her and she knew her best chance at succeeding was at the Solar Sea.

And so once again, she saw no way around the inevitable conclusion that they would have to separate.

One week.

"Damnit!" she shouted, flinging the wooden cup next to her across the room, toppling and crashing the clay pots of water on the table against the wall.

"Did the water do something to upset you?" a voice said from behind her.

Clarke felt her shoulders slump, the rage leaving her.

Lexa took a few slow steps into the room, closer to Clarke.

Clarke shook her head, wrapping her arms around herself and didn't turn around. "It's not enough time," she said, feeling the rage transform into tears of frustration.

"No," Lexa said quietly. She took the last few steps, stopping when she stood next to Clarke. Near but not touching.

Clarke stared, vision blurring through tears, at the nearby fire. She suddenly felt cold. A deep, unending cold deep in her bones. She tightened her arms around herself and felt a tear slip down her cheek.

She could feel Lexa looking at her. "Clarke," she said softly.

Clarke let her eyes slip closed at the sound. No one said her name like Lexa. It was always so much more than her name when it came from Lexa's lips.

She opened her eyes and turned her head, meeting the deep green eyes next to her. She wanted to always see those eyes before her when she opened her eyes. She wanted those eyes, and all that those eyes held as they looked at her, forever.

"It will never be enough," Lexa said, her voice betraying her own emotion.

Longing seized Clarke and she suddenly couldn't bare not touching her. She reached for Lexa and Lexa's own arms wrapped around her, crushing their bodies together, their lips meeting, seeking each other out by instinct. Lexa's hands travelled up and cupped Clarke's face, then slipped into her hair. Clarke let out a whimper, her fingers fisting in the fabric of Lexa's shirt, holding on, determined never to let go.

Clarke pushed away the what ifs, the cold, the dread, the voice echoing "one week," and focused only on the moment. The feel of Lexa's arms around her, the soft demanding lips that travelled over every inch of her skin, the weight of their bodies and limbs, the exquisite friction as they moved against each other. Never did she feel so powerless as under Lexa's touch, and never did she feel so powerful as when she drove Lexa to cry out her name.

There was no tomorrow. Only the now.


	7. Chapter 7 - The Visit

Chapter 7

Lexa didn't know what woke her. She blinked a few times, her eyes adjusting to the dim glow of the dying fire. A tangle of blonde hair was splayed across her chest and an arm draped possessively around her waist. She sighed and gently touched the soft tresses so as not to wake Clarke.

A faint noise, like a shuffle of fabrics, sounded in the next room and Lexa froze, her senses on alert. Silence.

Still she gently extricated herself from Clarke's embrace and moved to the edge of her bed. When her feet hit the furs on the ground she frowned. A think layer of fog drifted thickly over the floor.

She blinked, making sure her vision was clear. The thick fog covered every inch of the ground and extended into the next room. She stood slowly and silently made her way to the hanging fabrics that separated her sleeping area from the rest of the tent.

The sound again. Faint, but there beyond the curtain in the next room. She lifted the fabrics slowly and swept her gaze across the room. It was dark, only a few low candles clinging to their last flickers of light. The fog covered the floor there too, thick and slowly creeping.

She glanced back at the bed, at Clarke, and froze. The blonde lay where she'd left her, sprawled under the furs, hair fanned out amongst the blankets, arm exposed and outstretched where Lexa had been. And on her arm, a watch. A watch she knew well.

Lexa turned back to the dark tent just as a dark figure slipped beyond the doorway into the night. She waisted no time and followed, keeping her bare steps light and soundless through the blanket of fog.

She pushed open the tent opening, expecting to see the encampment, but instead found herself surrounded by crumbled ruins. She spun, disoriented. The tent she'd just emerged from gone, replaced by dark silhouettes of crumbling walls and rising smoke.

Polis.

But unlike how she'd ever seen it. The tower stood, reaching upwards until lost in the churning dark clouds above. Scattered around it, shells of once great structures, reduced to rubble. No sign of the villages. No sign of her people. No sign of life.

The shuffle sound again, this time closer. She spun in the direction of the sound and stopped, her breathe catching. A figure stood a few yards before her, fog and smoke seeming to swirl around it as if alive.

The figure began moving towards her, it's feet lost in the thick fog. The shape resolved into a woman dressed in shapeless clothes. Dark hair, dark eyes. The figure stopped in front of Lexa, her expression unreadable and the dark eyes studied her.

Lexa scarcely breathed, her body tense with uncertainty.

While she had been visited by the past Commanders, they had all looked like Grounders. This woman before her was different. She watched Lexa as if seeing into her soul, evaluating, judging.

Lexa's eyes travelled over her, settling on a patch of fabric above her breast. COMMANDER. As realization dawned, she met the dark gaze locked on her.

"Prom Heda," she whispered.

The figure broke into a sudden and brilliant smile but did not speak.

She had been visited by many past leaders, but never the first Commander. Never Prom Heda. Never Becca. Until now.

Becca turned suddenly and began walking away.

"Wait!" Lexa said.

Becca stopped but didn't turn back to her.

"We need you," Lexa said.

Becca lowered her head a moment, as if in thought. Then began walking again. Lexa scrambled after her. The figure of the first Commander moved quickly. Unnaturally so and Lexa struggled to keep her in sight as they moved beyond the bounds of Polis and into the woods beyond.

The figure paused again in a glade and turned it's gaze to the sheer mountain face that stretched high above one side of the clearing. The fog parted almost supernaturally to reveal the massive wall. Lexa looked at it, feeling it's familiarity tug at the back of her mind. The vertical slab of granite stretched almost to the stars. Lexa squinted against the night, noticing vertical rectangular shapes that stood out dark against the grey rock. It was familiar and at the same time Lexa was certain she'd never seen it before. Becca was walking again and Lexa tore her gaze away and hurried after her.

She pushed through thick forest, branches ripping at her clothes and skin, trying to keep her in sight but she lost her as the fog rose and thickened making visibility impossible. She stumbled onward, blindly.

Then suddenly the fog disappeared and she stopped, teetering on the edge of a giant cliff, dark black waters swirling below. She caught her breath and glanced around, looking for any sign of where the Commander had gone.

Nothing.

She felt frustration and helplessness surge through her. This visit, coming now as it had, couldn't be coincidence. They needed help. She needed help. "Heda!" she shouted, her voice sounding desperate as it echoed against the rock walls.

Nothing.

It began to rain, quickly soaking her in her thin bed clothes and bare feet, the cuts from pushing through the forest stinging at the contact. She shook her head, feeling a hopelessness like she'd never experienced well up inside her. For her people. For herself. For Clarke. "Please," she pleaded in a whisper.

Her gaze roamed the dark waters below and found nothing. Then smallest sign of light drew her eye. She frowned and swiped at the water in her eyes. A glow, from the depths below, growing slowly. Without another thought she dove off the edge, falling a seemingly endless distance until she breached the water with a crash.

She took a deep breath and pushed below the surface, swimming as fast as she was able towards the glow. It was deep, but she pushed on, determination driving her. As she went deeper, the murky darkness of the water gave way to shapes. The remains of structures, long lost. The glow was emanating from inside a tumbled building of stone with a tall spire, it's cross rising like a ghost from the black depths.

Despite her chest burning for air, she swam to a hole in the crumbled structure where the light poured out. She pushed off of the rock walls to propel herself inside.

The glow filled the entire space and then she saw her. Becca. Suspended in the waters as if it was nothing at all, watching her expectantly, her dark hair floating around her. Becca's dark eyes met Lexa's and her lips spread into a gentle smile. Then she turned and looked next to her. It was then that Lexa noticed the silvery metal case which seemed to be the source of the light.

"Save our people," she heard a woman's voice say. It was as if the voice came from inside her own head, but it didn't belong to her. Becca's voice. Lexa looked at Becca, her lungs screaming. The first Commander was looking fondly at the case, her fingers running slowly across the symbol of the Commander scratched and worn on it's surface. Then she brought her dark eyes to meet Lexa's. "Ask the Children of the Blood," the voice echoed.

The glow suddenly began to grow hotter and brighter until she had to shield her eyes. At that moment her lungs could no longer resist and she gulped for air only sucking in the black waters.

Lexa bolted upright, sucking in a huge breathe and coughing. She doubled over, gasping to get air back into her lungs. She vaguely felt hands on her back, rubbing circles and she looked up, her eyes strained and blood shot.

"God, Lexa are you alright? What happened?"

Clarke.

Lexa glanced wildly around the room and realized she was back in the tent on the bed of furs, the fire burning brightly, the fog gone. She slowed her breathing and sat back, taking Clarke's worrying hands in her own and holding them still. Then she lifted Clarke's wrist. No watch.

She met Clarke's concerned gaze. "I saw her," she said, her voice strained from the coughing fit.

Clarke shook her head, not understanding.

"Prom Heda. Becca. She came to me," she explained.

Clarke sat back, obviously stunned.

She looked up at Lexa and found her smiling.

"I know what I have to do," she said.


	8. Chapter 8 - Departure

Chapter 8 - Departure

"No."

Silence followed the single word as all eyes stayed on Clarke. She shook her head and leaned her hands against the table covered in maps and screens, trying to force her breathing to remain calm.

"No," she said again, then she pushed herself up and squared her shoulders.

"Clarke…" Kane's voice began.

But she cut him off immediately, any calm she had reclaimed instantly gone again. "It's suicide!" she said, raising her voice. She glanced from Kane to the others around the table. All except for one. "There has to be another way."

"There isn't," the calm but commanding voice said near her. Lexa glanced down at the blonde, aware of the emotional distance growing between them by the second. But there was nothing she could do to stop it. She pulled in a breathe and stepped away, beginning a pace around the large table in the planning room in Arkadia. There was nothing left to do but put physical distance between them now as well. "And besides, it doesn't matter." She stopped opposite Clarke, their equally resolute gazes locking across the expanse. "I'm going and no one will stop me." Lexa's voice was low and had the dangerous edge she used only when she was deadly serious.

They had made their way back to Arcadia with haste in the cover of night. Lexa hadn't told Clarke much, insisting they gather everyone first. The room they now stood in facing off, held Kane, Abby, Raven, Monty, Bellamy, Lincoln and Octavia, Roan, Luna and Indra.

Once all assembled, Lexa told them of her dream, her visit, from Becca, the first commander. The expressions of the Grounders shared the significance of this event. But as Lexa's tale continued, Clarke had grown increasingly pale, her scowl increasing as she began to understand what Lexa's information would mean.

It was Kane that broke the uneasy silence that had fallen over the group. "What is it that you think you will find there?"

Lexa tore her gaze from Clarke's and schooled her features. She was Heda now. "Something that will save us," she said confidently.

"You don't even know if these places you saw exist," Clarke argued with a hostile tone.

Lexa turned back to her, her eyes flashing. "I believe they exist. And I will find them," she answered, unable to keep the growl from her voice.

"No," Clarke said again, her eyes flashing back.

Roan pushed back from the table, his brow furrowed deeper than usual. "The rock face," his deep voice rumbled, his small eyes flicking to Lexa, "you said they had dark markings."

Lexa looked to him and nodded once.

"Vertical, like deep gouges out of the rock itself?"

She nodded again.

His gaze slid to Clarke, who looked both angry and frightened by what he was about to say. "I know that place," he said.

Clarke's eyes slid close and she dropped her chin to her chest, her defiance deflated.

"Where?" Lexa asked.

Roan refocused his gaze on Lexa. "North. Several days ride beyond Azgeda. _Dokwocha_."

""Dokwocha?" Bellamy echoed, needing a translation.

"It means someone who watches for the shadows," Lincoln said.

"That's not creepy at all," Monty mumbled.

"And the water?" Lexa asked.

"Another few days travel west is a crater." He grimaced, "More like a giant gash ripped from the ground. The snow melt gathers at the bottom."

Lexa nodded, eyes gleaming with purpose.

"Fine," Clarke said, her voice more subdued than before. She turned back to the table, her eyes moving over the various weather readings tracking the storms. "Then we hunker down and wait."

"We can't," Raven said, pulling up several new screens showing readings only she and Monty could understand, but the flashing red scattered across the displays didn't bode well. "The new drone Monty sent up yesterday came back with the highest readings yet. We have about a week before this," she circled a giant cyclone shape swirling slow and ominous, "hits Arcadia."

"How long round trip?" Kane asked Roan.

He scratched his rough chin. "With perfect weather, six weeks at best."

"Shit," Octavia said for all of them.

"We've weathered storms before," Abby added, though her voice betrayed her lack of confidence in her own statement.

Raven shook her head. "Not like this. This is about five times stronger than the storm that took out Polis." She realized the bluntness of her words a few seconds after they escaped her lips. She glanced at Indra, "Sorry."

Indra gave her a sharp nod and spoke for the first time. "If this is true, we must move our people to the caves now."

Kane agreed, "And we need to leave Arkadia. Even without the storm, the radiation levels will be beyond survivable even to Skaikru in less than six weeks." His eyes met Lexa's. "I'm sorry, we won't be able to wait."

Lexa nodded in understanding.

Clarke finally locked her eyes on Lexa's. "If I can't go with you, then I'm staying here until you get back."

Lexa said nothing, knowing her words would only hurt Clarke more.

Abby placed her hand on Clarke's arm. "Clarke, even if you managed to survive the storm, you wouldn't be able to make it back to the Solar Sea. It just won't be survivable here."

"I'll stay," Luna spoke up.

All eyes turned to her. She looked at Abby and Clarke. "If you swear to take what's left of my people with you safely to the Solar Sea, I'll stay with the dying and wait for Lexa. Then I'll bring… whatever she finds… to you."

Kane nodded. "You have our word."

"Lincoln and I are going to the caves with the Grounders." Bellamy stiffened at Octavia's words. She met his gaze straight on, so he knew there was no point in arguing. Then she looked at Lexa. "We'll help Indra and Roan get the clans settled."

Lexa nodded her thanks.

"I'll need blood from all three Nightbloods you before you leave," Abby said to Lexa.

Lexa nodded, "Then we should do it now."

Clarke remained head down, leaning palms on the table as the room cleared. She let her eyes slip closed and shook her head as if she could rewind time. The voice next to her startled her eyes open.

"The Commander's spirit chose well with Lexa," Luna's said quietly. Clarke turned and met her eyes, surprised to see a bit of sadness in the deep brown depths. "I couldn't do what she's doing. I couldn't be that selfless."

"It's crazy what she's doing," Clarke spat back.

Luna chuckled and raised an eyebrow, "No crazier than pumping someone else blood through your body and sticking a piece of tech in the back of your neck to try and save the world, eh Skaigirl?"

Clarke swallowed, her angry expression softening.

"You two," Luna started, "are cut from the same cloth. I know you find strength in each other from it. And I know you are both made better because of it. None of that would be possible if you weren't who you are. Lexa is Heda. She was meant to be Heda. Just as you were meant to be a leader to your people. And just as the two of you were meant to be together. Right now you are wishing she were different. Selfish for once." Luna gave her a gentle smile, "But if that were true, she wouldn't be yours."

Clarke's eyes stung at Luna's words, their truth hitting her squarely in the chest.

Luna placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't let her walk out into that unknown without your blessing Clarke. Make your peace. Trust me when I tell you, if you don't, you will regret it."

Lexa pulled on her jacket and Abby labelled the vial containing her blood and tucked it securely into a case for safe keeping. "We'll continue the tests, see what more we can determine what's in your blood that protects you from the radiation."

Lexa nodded and when she would normally turn to leave, she lingered, uncharacteristically uncertain. Abby gave her a gentle smile and squeezed her arm. "I'll watch out for her," Abby said.

Lexa gave her a brief smile in gratitude and turned to leave. Abby's voice made her pause, "Be careful Lexa."

She didn't turn, but gave a quick nod before disappearing through the door.

She was surprised to find Bellamy standing by her horse when she entered the stable after saying her farewells to Indra and Roan. He wore a cloak as most everyone did these days to protect them from the hostile weather, his arms folded across his chest.

She stopped in front of him, straightening to her full height and facing his gaze head on, expecting some diatribe about Octavia and her decision to stay with the Grounders. But he surprised her by turning to her horse and tapping it's flank. It was draped in a black material and when his knuckles tapped on it, it sounded almost hollow.

"Carbon fiber materials sewn into the covers for your horse. Should help protect it if the black rain gets worse or whatever the hell else you might encounter out there," he said.

He pulled a black cloak from the wall next to him and tossed it to her. It was heavier than a normal cloak. "Same thing in this cloak."

She shook her head. "You will need this more than I will," she said.

He smiled his cocky grin and folded his arms across his chest again, refusing to take it back. "You're tough Lexa, I'll give you that. But even you aren't indestructible. And if you don't make it back…" His smile faltered, "Well lets just say I need Clarke thinking about her people, not her girlfriend."

Lexa watched him, looking for any lingering hostility but found his dark eyes clear. She nodded in gratitude and offered her hand. He grasped her wrist firmly. "May we meet again, Lexa," he recited.

She nodded, "May we meet again."

"Os homplei," Kane said, wishing her luck.

Lexa nodded, releasing his wrist. She looked once more to Indra and Roan, then Octavia and Lincoln. "Take care of our people," she said.

"She Heda," they all said.

Lexa glanced once more over the crowd that had gathered to see her off. There were many familiar faces, but not the one she was looking for. And it was past time she was on her way, the gray dawn already upon them. She gathered the reins in her hands.

"I'll see you upon your return," Luna said, bringing her back to the moment. She met the dark eyes of her fellow Natblida and nodded, then turned her horse and headed for the gates.

As she passed through them, she brought her horse slowly to a stop, a tingle at the base of her neck bringing her pause. She shifted her gaze slowly to her left and saw her.

Clarke was bundled in a cloak, her arms crossed protectively across her chest, hood pulled low. She shifted on her feet. Lexa watched her a moment before dismounting her horse and walking slowly until she stood in front of her.

She reached up slowly and slid the hood back until she could see Clarke's blue eyes peaking through her tossed blonde locks. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.

"Why are you smiling?" Clarke asked, her voice strained.

"I was thinking about how wrong Titus was," Lexa answered. "Love is not weakness." She ran her fingers along Clarke's cheek.

Clarke pulled away slightly. "Yes, your love for your people obviously knows no bounds."

Lexa's lips strained against a smile again. "You think I do this because I am Heda. But that's not it at all."

Clarke looked up, meeting her eyes.

"I know I should be doing this for my people. It is my duty as Heda. But do you remember the promise I made to you? To always put you first, above our people?"

Clarke nodded once.

"Clarke," she said in the voice that always made Clarke's knees go weak, "I'm not doing this for them. I'm doing it for you."

Clarke's forehead wrinkled.

"If what the first Commander's spirit is leading me to can really save us, protect us, then I will go to the ends of this world to find it. Not because it will save our people, but because it gives me a chance to be with you."

A tear made it's way down Clarke's cheek. Lexa reached up and brushed it away gently. "So you see, Clarke Kom Skaikru, hones lack uf. Love is strength after all."

Clarke's resolve crumbled and she stepped into Lexa, pulling the lapels of her cloak and crushing their lips together.

"Just come back to me, Commander," she whispered. "Ai sonraun laid yu sonraun."

Lexa rested her forehead against Clarke's, breathing in the scent of her to carry with her. When she pulled back, the familiar strength of resolve had made it's way back into Clarke's eyes. It was a look she knew well, and she smiled.

"Ai hod yu in, Clarke," Lexa said. Then she turned swiftly, mounted her horse and galloped towards the treeline without looking back.

Clarke watched until long after she disappeared into the trees.

"I love you too," she whispered to the wind.


	9. Chapter 9 - The Path

Chapter 9

The dense forest was dark and wet. The oily black rain that had been falling relentlessly for days had turned the forest floor into deep, stinking mud. The darkness remained unchanged, day or night. Only the sudden blue cracks of lightening, preluded by the odd feeling of deadly electricity in the air, allowed for visibility much beyond a few yards ahead.

Lack of sun, moon, stars or any semblance of daily cycles made navigation almost impossible. And the deep, sucking mud which swallowed a horses legs almost to the knee made progress slow. Time had no form or substance, just endless sameness that seemed to stretch on forever.

Lexa dropped from her saddle, her boots instantly sinking ankle deep. Her horse let out a snort, the slow, difficult progress tiring the animal quickly. A sudden blue flash, followed by the deafening crack lit the dim forest before them. The trail had been hard to decipher, but in the quick flash, she saw again what had caught her attention and made her dismount. A break in the trees ahead.

She tied the horses reins to a branch and noiselessly pulled her sword. The clearing could be a village. If so, like most she had passed recently, if any residents remained, they were likely dead. Earlier on her journey, however, she had encountered others that had attacked wildly with a viciousness of the damned. She creeped forward, trying to keep the sucking sound of her boots in the mud to a minimum by sticking close to the base of trees.

As she edged closer, the vague shapes of trees gave way to a dark void. Another blue flash revealed a small, empty clearing. Lexa straightened, sheathing her sword and stepping out from the cover of the trees. The ground under her feet became more solid. She knelt, plunging her fingers into the black muck. They quickly felt the resistance of cold, solid rock.

Her gaze lifted to the darkness to her left, waiting for a blue flash to define her surroundings. She felt her breathe freeze in her chest as it happened. A brilliant blue flash, revealing a towering granite rock face at the north end of the clearing. She stumbled towards it, her boots heavy with the clinging mud. She held her breath, waiting for another flash, a glimpse to confirm what she thought she saw.

CRACK! The light flashed again and she saw them. Dark, vertical shapes, like deep gashes, high up the rock face just like in her vision. Her face, weary, dirty and sore, changed slowly into a smile.

Clarke pulled her eyes away from the microscope in front of her and rubbed them wearily. The pristine white room that had been transformed into their medical lab was normally well lit, but was dim and deserted due to the late hour. She glanced down at her notes detailing the last few tests they'd run on Lexa, Luna and Keena's blood. Surrounding the notes were tiny doodles she tended to make when pondering something. Her eye was drawn to the symbol of the Commander, the infinity symbol, which she'd traced over and over in the margin.

It had been six weeks since they'd left Arcadia. Seven since she'd last seen Lexa. Her chest ached in a way that was now familiar every time she let her mind wander to Lexa. They had been apart before. In fact, they had spent more time apart than together. But it was the uncertainty, the not knowing, that ate at her now.

Since then she'd been running tests non-stop, working tirelessly to try and glean the hidden secrets of the Nightblood. But she'd found almost nothing.

She glanced up at the sound of the glass door opening and saw the familiar figure of Raven, arms crossed and looking at her with a scolding expression. "Do you ever sleep?" the mechanic asked.

Clarke smiled wearily, "Do you?" she shot back.

Raven grinned and walked in, letting the door close silently behind her. It was a familiar exchange, as both tended to be working well into the night and early morning as they searched for some solution as the world around them was quickly turning into a radiated wasteland.

Raven hopped up on the table next to Clarke and casually flipped through the blonde's notes. "Any luck?" she asked.

Clarke sighed loudly, rubbing her hands over her face. "No. And I'm running out of tests to re-run. You?"

Raven shook her head, her dark locks cascading over her shoulders. "Nothing." She frowned. "I can't help feeling like there is a chunk of data missing."

"Could it be the code lost when we destroyed ALLIE?"

Raven's brow furrowed, her gaze retreating, as if she were looking at code running in front of her instead of the glass wall and corridor beyond. "No, it's not that. It's…" she searched for words, but sighed when she couldn't find them. Her dark eyes met Clarke's and she shrugged. "Damned if I know."

Raven picked up a few sheets of paper with groupings of black and red dashes running vertically along the page and seemingly random letters codes running alongside. She glanced at Clarke, "Abstract doodles?"

Clarke smiled, taking the three sheets. "No, DNA analysis of the Nightbloods."

"Find anything?"

Clarke shook her head. "No. Remarkably similar. I've identified the sections that are related to their radiation immunity," she said indicating the red dashes. "But I don't know how that helps us." Her fingers unconsciously found their way to the black type spelling out Lexa's name at the top of one of the pages.

"Any differences between them?" Raven asked, trying to pull Clarke back from the black hole of worrying about Lexa.

Clarke shuffled the pages, laying all three side by side. She pointed to Keena's sheet. "Lexa and Luna's red markers are identical. Keena's has a slight variation." She shrugged, "Must be an enzyme or something that' changes in puberty. But like I said, it doesn't mean anything. It's not like we can recreate it or somehow change our DNA to replicate it."

Raven shook her head, "Becca did it somehow." She hopped off the table and put a reassuring hand on Clarke's shoulder. "Don't give up," she said, her voice softening. "You know Lexa hasn't."

Clarke met her eyes, trying to gain strength from Raven's resolve. She nodded and gave a quick smile. But it didn't reach her eyes.

Octavia's eyes followed Lincoln as he dropped a few rabbits by one of three of the large cooking fires. His reinforced black cloak, a parting gift from Bellamy, glistened in the fire light with the oily black dew of the outside. Their traps had been producing less and less, and any hunting time had to be brief, otherwise they risked falling ill.

She cast her gaze around the cavern, glowing with the orange light of flickering fires, the hum of voices a steady thrum of the life of the Grounder occupants in their new underground home. It had been harder to adjust to the lack of sun than she'd imagined. Not that there was any sun to be seen on the outside either.

All told the Grounders had adjusted as well as could be expected. They were working together under the watchful eye of Indra, Roan and the other clan leaders. Only a few skirmishes had arisen in their nine weeks underground. Most had settled into the new routine of life in the caverns. After all, it was that or banishment and certain death.

Lincoln dropped his cloak on the ground next to her and then sat down. Octavia leaned into him almost immediately, glad to have her other half safely back from the dangers of the outside. He kissed the top of her head and put his arm around her.

"Any sign of the raiders?" she asked him.

In the first few weeks, they had come under siege by raiders that had rejected the protection of their clans and were now desperate for supplies. But they had grown fewer and fewer in the past weeks.

Lincoln shook his head. "Nothing. And no signs."

"Think they're all dead?" she asked quietly.

He didn't answer. After a moment of extended silence he changed the subject. "Traps were meager. I think the animals are starting to become more affected as well."

She nodded, glancing over where several rows of greenhouses with artificial lights, powered by the stream, had been erected. Aubry, the Farm station girl who to everyones surprise had volunteered to go with the Grounders and help them survive, was puttering around as usual. "Strange times," Octavia muttered, watching as Aubry and the Grounders assigned to greenhouse duty continued their work.

Lincoln directed her attention to the largest of the fires where a figure paced restlessly. Indra. Octavia frowned. "She's worried," she said.

"I'd say things have gone better than expected so far," Lincoln said.

Octavia shook her head. "It's not that. She's worried about Lexa. Hell, we all are."

"The Commander knows what she's doing," Lincoln said.

"Maybe, most of the time. But not now. Chasing a dream?"

"It wasn't a dream, it was a vision," Lincoln corrected calmly.

"Yeah, whatever. I'm not pinning my hopes on a vision," she grumbled.

"Taim tel on," Lincoln said, pulling her a little closer.

Time would tell indeed.


	10. Chapter 10 - The Plunge

Chapter 10

Lexa dropped to her knees at the edge of the earth. The ground simply ceased in front of her and despite the sporadic and violent flashes from the storm lashing her, she couldn't see where it began again. It was truly as if she were standing on the edge of the world. She swiped in frustration at the oily, stinging water in her eyes and strained her vision below, trying to discern any details of what lay beyond the edge, but all that appeared was an endless, inky blackness.

She sank back on her heels and pulled her cloak a little tighter. The wind lashing at her and the hard ice pellets driving their way into the gaps in her cloak had chilled her to the bone. She glanced behind her, barely able to make out the silhouette of her horse that she'd left tethered in the relative shelter of the tree line. Then her gaze returned to the gaping void before her.

There was no going back. She glanced up at the sky, it's dark roiling clouds jumping into sharp contrast as a blue flash cracked the sky. She closed her eyes, holding on to that blue color in a world that had been endless grays and blackness for untold weeks. She knew she'd been gone much longer than planned, though she had no way to track exactly how much time had passed since she left Arkadia. Left Clarke.

Clarke. Vibrant blue eyes appeared in her memory, framed by tousled blonde locks. A smile. A frown. Those eyes hardened with sharp focus and undeterable conviction. Then her memory shifted to the blue glow at the bottom of the dark pit from her vision, growing underwater. And the first Commander, smiling as she reached it's source. "Children of the blood," the voice echoed in her head.

She opened her eyes, again searching the darkness beyond her but she could discern nothing. She pushed to her feet, her lips set in a grim line. She peeled off the heavy, protective cloak, unbuckled her sword and stripped out of the thick, leather armor underneath. She stood defiantly against the acidic rains and pelting ice and with a deep breath she dove into the nothingness below.

The power of the impact and the sharp stab of the ice water shocked her at first. Her limbs were heavy and slow to respond. She surfaced, gasping as her chest contracted against the cold. She managed to pull out the small, yellow glow stick that Kane had given her and cracked it so it emitted a weak glow. The water's surface was black. As she looked up she could barely make out the edge high above that she'd jumped from against the fast moving clouds.

She focused her breathing, forcing it to slow, forcing her heart to steady it's frantic pace. She shook the small glow stick, making sure it emitted as much light as possible, then she filled her lungs with air and dove under.

She could see very little and the water burned her eyes as she strained against the darkness. She swam deeper, towards what, she wasn't sure. Her arms and legs ached but she pushed herself deeper into the abyss. The glow was so weak she practically collided with the submerged structure before she saw it. She moved her light around and a shape began to emerge, the details filled in part by her memory of the structure in her vision.

She was at the cross that reached out from the top of the structure. She followed it deeper, despite the increase in her heart rate and the pressure building in her lungs. She felt, more than saw the crumbled hole in the ruins and pushed herself inside. She swam urgently forward, her memory still guiding her. When she reached to area where she remembered finding Becca and the silver case, she felt for a surface and finding one, ran the glow stick over the area, hoping to pick up a glint form the metal case she'd seen in the vision.

As she swept her light through the darkness, a white face with huge black eyes appeared suddenly in front of her. She flinched and pushed back, startled. She paused as much as she dared, her lungs beginning the scream at her, her heart racing but nothing came at her in the darkness. She swam closer, cautiously and the light revealed the stark white creature. A skeleton, human, stretched out on the silty surface before her. No silver case. Nothing at all what she expected.

Her lungs screamed louder, demanding air. She swept the light over the skull and froze. There on the bone of the forehead was a faint etching she could just make out with her dim light. The symbol of the Commander, carved into the bone. She picked up the skull, pulling it from it's resting place and as she turned it over in her hands, a dark vial dropped from it, resting on the silt ledge. She grabbed the vial, tucking it securely into her waist belt and gently returned the skull to it's resting place.

Then she kicked away, hard, fighting the urge her body demanded to suck in air. She was far from the surface, she knew and the darkness looked the same in every direction. She kicked hard, fighting with everything in her to hold on and make it to the surface. Her vision blurred, her eyes burning, lungs bursting. And before she surfaced, she lost consciousness, drifting in the dark waters below the waves.

Luna opened the hatch and scanned the metallic ruins of Arkadia, as had become her daily routine. Black rain. No movement save the wind gusts shaking the trees and causing the structures around her to creak. She had been alone for weeks, the last of the sick too ill to travel having died long ago.

She ran her eyes along the tree line, looking for any changes, any signs of life.

She grimaced. Still nothing.

She reached for the hatch, pulling it towards her, her gaze sweeping the tree line once more. She stopped. Was the movement she sensed her imagination? She stepped into the rain, sinking in mud, but forcing herself forward, her eyes never leaving the spot where she saw the movement.

As the form of a horse began to take shape she walked faster. By the time she could make out the dark figure slumped over the horse she was running.


	11. Chapter 11 - This is It

Chapter 11

Warmth. It was a feeling so alien, it took a moment to comprehend what it was. She opened her eyes slowly. A blurry orange glow appeared before her. She thought of the glow stick and suddenly flailed wildly, kicking against the water. But there was no water. She stilled after a moment, gasping and she heard movement nearby. She rubbed her eyes and they stung.

"Easy there, Commander," a calming, honeyed voice said.

She glanced towards the sound, seeing a shape moving towards her slowly. She shook her head, blinking to try to clear her vision. The shape resolved into a familiar face.

"Luna," her voice cracked with lack of use and strain.

Luna smiled and gently pushed her back to rest against the makeshift bedroll by the fire.

"Lexa," she said. "You're safe."

Lexa relaxed, letting out an exhausted sigh, and slumped back against the soft bedding.

"Took you long enough," Luna said with a grin.

Lexa managed a weak smile.

Luna dropped another bit of garbage collected from the Arcadia ruins to the fire and settled her gaze on Lexa. She was thin, cheeks hollow, eyes red as if burned. She had cuts and bruises at various stages of freshness and her dark hair, usually in immaculate braids, was loose and disheveled.

Her eyes tracked back and met the weary, bloodshot green eyes of her old friend. "Did you find it?" she asked, quietly as if afraid to ask.

Lexa reached to her belt and pulled out a thick glass cylinder filled with a black, oily liquid. She cradled it reverently in her palm and swept her thumb gently over one end. She glanced up at Luna, who was staring at the strange vial. Lexa tilted the end towards her, and revealed in the firelight the symbol in stark relief on the vials end. The symbol of the Commander.

Clarke glanced up at the sound of shouting. Occasionally skirmishes flared up, but it was rare enough for her to leave the lab to investigate. Raven and Bellamy met her in the hall as they all moved towards the shouting. In the massive room that served as the main entrance, a crowd had gathered, including Kane and her mother.

"What's going on?" Bellamy demanded loudly and the voices died. The crowd parted, revealing Luna, her dark eyes instantly finding Clarke's.

Clarke clutched her shirt as her heart lurched in her chest. She searched Luna's face for some sign, anything.

After a moment, Luna's lips spread into a smile and instantly tears spilled down Clarke's cheeks.

The glass vial stood in the centre of the table in the medical lab. The black liquid a sharp contrast to the start white surface of the table.

There was silence as Kane, Abby, Bellamy, Raven, Monty, Luna and Clarke stared at it.

"What is it?" Monty asked, his eyes still on the vial.

"She didn't know," Luna answered. She glanced towards Clarke. "She's hoping you would find out."

Clarke glanced from Luna back to the vial, not speaking.

Raven reached for it, holding the heavy glass in her palm. Everyone seemed to hold a collective breath. She held it up to the light, spinning it, watching the liquid slosh around inside.

"We'll have to analyze it. See what it's made of, if we can," Abby said.

"Do you think this is what she could have used?" Kane asked. "Some kind of injection or ingestion of a liquid to boost radiation immunity?"

Abby shook her head, "I don't see how… but we'll have to analyze it."

Monty shifted next to Raven, studying the contents against the light as well.

Luna leaned closer to Clarke. "She was a little worse for wear but she was mostly back to herself by the time she left," she said quietly.

Clarke glanced at her and gave her a weak smile. "Thanks."

"She told me something else," Luna said, drawing Clarke's eyes back to hers. "She said, 'Oso gonplei nou ste odon nowe. Yu gou.'"

Clarke smiled gently, feeling the tears threatening to return.

Only a loud shout shocked her back to reality. Everyone was reaching towards Raven and she quickly opened the vial and before anyone could stop her, she dumped the contents into a bowl, with a splash and a faint clink.

"What the hell are you doing?" Bellamy said.

Raven ignored him, still staring at the contents. She reached in, the group collectively sucking in a breath. She pulled her fingers out slowly, drops of the black liquid clinging to her fingers, and between them, a small, silver chip.

"A data chip," Monty whispered in amazement.

Raven's lips split into a grin and she glanced at Clarke. "This is it," she said.


	12. Chapter 12 - Together

Chapter 12

"Goddamnit!" Raven shouted, tossing the keyboard in front of her to the ground and pushing her chair back so quickly it toppled with a clatter.

Monty looked up, watching her silently as she paced, running her hands through her hair in frustration. Obviously this was not the first time Raven's frustration had exploded.

"No luck?" he said after a moment.

She shot him a deadly look and continued pacing. "I can't figure out this code," she exclaimed through gritted teeth. "I've tried everything related to ALLIE, to Becca, to Polaris, the 13th station. Nothing works!"

It had been days since they discovered the chip in the vial Lexa had recovered. It was definitely tech they were familiar with, circa the era of the first Unity Day. It must have come to Earth in Polaris with Becca. But it was impossible to decipher without the key code. A key Raven and Monty had been unable to crack.

Raven leaned her elbows on the railing of the upper floor next to Clarke and let out a long, loud sigh of frustration.

"That good huh?" Clarke said, her eyes traveling idly over the milling crowd of Skaikru and Flokru below going about their daily business in the largest room they called the Great Hall.

"We're missing something," Raven said.

Clarke nodded but had nothing to add. The boost of energy and optimism that had come with Luna's sudden arrival had wained with the realization they were at yet another road block. Clarke was tired. Deeply tired in her soul.

"We're missing that damn key. It's only 88 characters but it could be any combination of letters, numbers, symbols… It's impossible to crack. Are you sure she didn't say anything else?" Raven asked.

Clarke's gaze found below Luna as she laughed and talked to Keena. The girl was obviously happy to have her leader returned to her, as were all of the remaining Flokru. Clarke imagined the Grounders were glad to have their Commander back as well. The thought of Lexa brought back that familiar twinge in her chest.

"Clarke?" Raven said.

Clarke broke out of her revery and looked at Raven.

"Did Luna say anything else? Or Lexa, about her vision, that could be a clue?"

Clarke shook her head. "No, just something about Children of the Blood. Nightbloods. But we've exhausted all of our tests on their blood, the liquid from the vial… Everything. A dozen times over. Nothing."

Raven pushed off the railing and ran a hand through her hair. "I'm heading back in," she said. "Can you just… just look through your notes again?"

Clarke nodded, knowing it would be futile.

Clarke had all of the test results laid out in orderly stacks, the most recent results on top. It was a massive amount of information that resulted in absolutely nothing. The longer she stared at them, the more angry she got until finally she kicked the edge of the table hard with her foot in frustration and left a flurry of papers in her wake as she exited the lab.

She retreated to a secluded spot that had become her own, tucked away in the corner of the rafters by one of the narrow, slitted windows. There she could brood undisturbed, which usually involved staring out into the hostile environment outside and drawing in her notebooks.

She pulled her gaze from the window and ran her hands over the rough leather cover of the book. Lexa had made it for her. In fact, she'd made several as she knew Clarke would go through them easily. A sad smile turned her lips as she traced the creases in the worn leather.

She took a deep breath and she began flipping through the pages, glancing through her medical notes. Test results, comparisons, questions, conclusions, inconclusive answers. Endless pages showing absolutely nothing helpful. She tossed it down next to her in anger and scrubbed her hands over her face. "Damnit Lexa," she whispered, letting the tears she normally held in slide down her cheeks.

After allowing herself a moment of self-pity, she sighed, wiped her eyes and grabbed the book again. She paused looking at the page the book had fallen open too. Notes on the DNA comparison between Nightbloods. Her eyes drifted to the doodles in the margins and she ran her fingers over the ridges in the page. The infinity symbol stood out dark against the white sheet because she had traced over it so many times.

She frowned, a thought tickling the edge of her consciousness. She turned the book to the side, the infinity sign now turned vertically looking very much like the number 8.

"Ask the Children of the Blood," she muttered, remembering Lexa's exact words she had shared from her vision

She bit her lip and flipped few a through pages, turning then quickly as an idea began to take shape in her mind. She stopped on a page, running her finger along her findings. The DNA sequences. The breakout of the red dashes. The difference between the sequences from Keena and the two other Nightbloods.

"Children of the blood," she whispered. Then she slammed the book closed and scrambled back to the lab.

She burst in, eyes running over the scattered papers left in her wake from when she left. She pushed though the various stacks, searching for what she was looking for, growing more and more frantic.

Then she stopped, her hands shaking as she clutched the paper she was searching for. The red code that protected them from the radiation. Red dashes with the alpha-numeric labels running down the edge. Identical across all three except for one section. The part that Keena had that the others did not. A short variation that totaled 88 characters.

Clarke burst into the room practically startling Monty out of his chair and drawing Raven's attention from her screen.

"Children of the blood!" she exclaimed, holding the paper above her head.

Raven frowned and looked at Clarke with an expression that indicated her friend might have finally lost it. "What?"

Clarke ran over to her and thrust the paper at her. "The difference in the DNA sequence between Keena and Luna and Lexa. The extra bit they don't have. Raven, it's an 88 character sequence."

Raven's eyes went wide and she snatched the paper, her eyes running over it quickly. "Why the hell not?" she murmured, and began typing furiously. After a moment, her hands froze, hovering above the keys. She looked at Clarke, their eyes meeting. CLICK. Raven pushed enter and they held their breath.

They didn't have to hold it for long. The blinking cursor suddenly erupted in endless streams of text. Readable, English text. Then images began populating the screen so quickly they could barely understand them. A flash of the inner workings of a large complex mechanism. A rock face with vertical vents. Diagrams and charts with radiation levels.

Raven's eyes were huge as the screen was filled with window on top of window. She turned to Clarke, her mouth hanging open. Clarke's stunned look slowly spread into a grin, tears falling from her eyes. "This is it," she whispered.

Lexa was holding court. Her audience, about 30 youngsters seated on the rock floor around her. They laughed as she finished her story about a hunt gone awry in her youth. She smiled gently, watching their youthful faces, full of resilience despite their lives now. We should take a lesson from these children, she thought to herself.

"Heda!" a shout rang out from one of the tunnel entrances across the cavern.

Lexa looked up, recognizing Lincoln moving quickly towards her. She glance at the children and told them to run along and she rose to meet him.

"What is it?" she said as he stopped, out of breathe.

"Something's happening," he said.

Lincoln, Octavia, Indra and Roan stood huddled in the cave entrance staring out as Lexa stepped into the forest. The rain, a constant for months, had stopped. She held out her hands, as if not believing it.

Then they all looked up, a sudden brightness catching their attention. Not the quick flashes of blue lightening they had become accustomed to, but a weak orange glow through the clouds. The sun.

Lexa looked back at the group huddled in the entrance, her smile growing. "They did it," she said.

Despite their certainty of success, Skaikru was still cautious about returning to Arkadia. They tested extended periods of exposure outside, followed by a battery of tests for radiation levels in water, air, animals. They conducted repeated drone surveillance sweeps for storms or violent weather changes. Tests, tests and more tests.

Radiation levels, on a whole, had decreased to levels only slightly higher than before it had all began.

If you were to corner Raven, she would have explained in great detail the discovery and activation of a powerful machine hidden in a mountain to the north. It's creation and sole purpose to clean and neutralised the affects from a nuclear attack or melt down. A prototype safety mechanism built hastily in the times leading up to the nuclear war that had devastated the earth and sent them to the sky. Built by the same corporation that had built ALLIE, had created the Flame, had been the 13th station. Becca.

But most only cared about when they would be going home. Back to Arkadia and back to the sea.

Clarke came to a stop on the hilltop that finally revealed the chaos and debris that was what was once Arkadia. Despite the scouts having reported back that the area was empty of occupants, Clarke still let her eyes roam eagerly searching from some signs of Grounder activity. Finding none she followed the rest of the group and they trudged back to the valley, their long journey at an end, but the rebuilding process just beginning.

She spent several days helping to get everyone organized and the rebuilding process underway before she could wait no longer. She packed a bag mostly containing her journals and saddled a horse. Bellamy met her in the stables. "Not going to say goodbye?" he said, leaning against the open doorway.

She glanced at him while tightening the straps on her saddle. "Is it ever goodbye?" she said smiling.

He chuckled and walked towards her. "I wish I could come with you," he said.

"They need you here, Bel," she said. "Besides, I'll find Octavia. Tell her you're ok."

He nodded. "Thanks."

She pulled herself into the saddle and met his eyes. "Until we meet again," she said.

He smiled, "Until then. Be safe Clarke."

Lexa forced her body to straighten and stretched her back, turning her face to the sun. She, and many other Grounders, were knee deep in the rubble that was once the tower in Polis. They were loading wagons full of stone and clearing them, while other groups had built a tent city in the surrounding grounds.

She wiped the sweat from her eyes and a small smile settled on her lips as she watched her people, hard at work, together. Polis would never be rebuilt to be exactly what it had been, but it would be something new. Perhaps something better and stronger. And it would still be home and the centre of prosperity and order and peace in their region.

She glanced towards the sound of hooves and saw Octavia skidding to a halt on her horse. She dropped to the ground and started moving quickly towards Lexa.

"Heda!" she said, stopping slightly out of breathe.

"What is it?" Lexa asked, frowning in concern.

"You need to see this for yourself," she said.

Lexa's horse followed Octavia's single file through the trees. She knew that the Skaikru warrior had doubled back in a way that Lexa wasn't supposed to notice. She pulled her horse to a stop, finally having enough. "Octavia, I don't have time for games. There's too much work to be done. I need…" her voice trailed off as Octavia led her horse off to the side, revealing a small clearing where a single tent was setup.

She dismounted, giving Octavia a suspicious sideways glance. She edged closer to the clearing, not seeing any movement. Then suddenly Octavia's shrill whistle rang out behind her. She turned on the balls of her feet, ready to spring into action but Octavia just smiled. "You can thank me later," she said, and turned her horse back towards Polis.

The sound of the tent flap moving brought her attention back to the clearing and Lexa froze, staring as Clarke stepped into the daylight. Clarke. Her Clarke. It had been seven or eight months, as near as they could tell anyway, since they'd parted in Arkadia for uncertain futures. And now, they stood staring, only a few feet separating them.

Clarke's surprise soon dissolved as a smile that quickly spread over her face. Lexa stepped towards her and Clarke rushed to meet her half way. Their embrace was crushing, pulling each other close and holding on as if the other might disappear.

When they pulled apart, Lexa had tears on her cheeks. Clarke wiped them away gently with her thumbs and looked into the green eyes that had left such an aching hole in her chest for so long.

"Clarke," Lexa whispered, running her hands along Clarke's neck.

"You did it," Clarke said quietly. "You were right. You saved our people. I'm sorr…"

Lexa silenced her with a kiss. Gentle, reacquainting. She pulled away and smiled softly. "I saved _you_ ," she said, looking into Clarke's eyes. "And you saved me."

Clarke pulled Lexa to her lips again, this time kissing her deeply, pouring all of the longing, the fear, the desperation since they'd parted into it.

When the kiss ended, they rested their foreheads together, breathing each others air for a moment.

"What now?" Clarke asked.

Lexa smiled. "Whatever we do, we do it together," she said.

"Together," Clarke agreed. "Always." Clarke's face transformed with a brilliant smile and she pulled Lexa down for another kiss.

The End… for now :) Thanks for reading!


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